Divorce Statistics and Studies Blog

Marital status mapped county by county nationwide

Relationship Status Geography

BY NATHAN YAU  /  POSTED TO DATA UNDERLOAD  on flowingdata.com

In-depth picture of divorce in Spain offers interesting contrasts

Spain's National Institute of Statistics has released an in-depth report on contemporary divorce in Spain as of 2014. Highlights:

• The per-capita divorce rate (including annulments and separations) is 0.23% (i.e., 0.46% of the whole population gets divorced each year, since a divorce involves two people).That was a 5.4% increase over 2013. The 2014 rate was the same as the US's third-lowest-divorce state, Louisiana. The report breaks rates down by region; they ranged from 0.18% (still higher than our lowest-divorce state, Iowa) to 2.8% (still low by US standards, the same as long-time low-divorce states RI,NY, NJ, SD & ND).
• 95% of these cases were divorces, 5% were separations, and 0.1% were annulments.
• 76% were by mutual consent; 24% were contested. But separations were 85% mutual-consent. 
• 76% of divorces and 86% of separations took six months or less from court filing to resolution. Median duration was 4.4 months. The median for mutual-consent cases was 2.8 months, and for contested cases it was 9.6 months.
• 57% of cases were jointly filed. 27% were filed by the wife, 16% by the husband.
• The median length of marriages at the time of divorce, legal separation or annulment was 15.8 years. The median for divorce was 15.4 years, and for legal separation it was 22.2 years. For annulments, 7.4 years. 30% of divorces were in marriages of 20 years or more. 23.5% were in marriages of 6 to 10 years.
•  The highest-divorce age bracket for both men and women was the forties. Median age at divorce was 45 for men, 42 for women; at legal separation, 50 for men, 48 for women.
• 53% of cases involved minor children, and another 4% involved "dependent adult" children. Only 21% of cases with minor children included shared custody (up from 18% in 2013). There was no indication of how shared custody was defined. 73% of mothers and 5% of fathers had sole custody.
• 58% of cases included child support orders. 78% of these were payable by the man, 5% by the woman, and 17% were by both. 10% of cases include spousal support, and in 92% of those, the payor is the man.
• In 85% of cases, both parties were Spanish. In 11%, one party was foreign, and in 6%, both were. (Note rounding)
• Most of the statistics above carefully stated that they only covered heterosexual cases.

 

"Statistics on Annulments, Separations and Divorces, Year 2014"; National Institute of Statistics, Press Notes, Sept. 15, 2015.

 

In 77% of South Korean divorces, each spouse accepts partial blame for breakup

Adulterer / deserter can't unilaterally divorce wife, even 15 years later - S. Korea Sup. Ct.

Cohabitation breakups get more costly to women; divorce costs decrease but still high

Moving Out Costs More Than It Used To

By Laurie DeRose at the Institute for Family Studies

A thoughtful analysis of the components of the direct economic costs of breakups and why they are increasing for cohabitation but decreasing for divorce.

Top 10 reasons for divorce and what happens in the 2 years before it - UK survey of 1,000

• New Survey Sheds Light On How And Why Couples Call It Quits (INFOGRAPHIC) - huffingtonpost.com
• Stigma of Divorce Still Alive & Well in 2014 Britain – New Report - Slater & Gordon
• Slater & Gordon Research Shows Unhappy Couples Fear Stigma of Divorce

 

Separations last years; only 79% become divorces - study

About 79% of married couples who separate end up getting divorced, suggest new estimates of the incidence and length of separations.

"Separation is very common and is more common than immediate divorce," said researcher Dmitry Tumin of Ohio State University at a presentation at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, which ended Sunday. "Most separations last one year or less, but a few drag on a decade or more before ending in divorce. Other separations stay unresolved."

"The decision to separate is driven by time spent in the first marriage, and for women, by the presence of young children," Tumin said. He co-authored the research with sociologist Zhenchao Qian, also of Ohio State.

When women have children younger than age 5, their likelihood of separating rather than divorcing right away is increased, Tumin says.

The analysis was based on data from 7,272 individuals who were ages 14-22 in 1979 and had ever married. Of those, 51% were still married. Among the rest, 60% report having gone through a marital separation, with most (79%) ultimately divorcing.

The research found that the average length of a first separation is about four years. For respondents who divorce after separating, it's three years. And for the small number who reunite, the average separation is two years, the study found.

"In fact, we don't observe any separations that end with the couple getting back together after a three-year period, so three years is the point of no return," Tumin said. "After three years, the only outcomes observed are ongoing separation or divorce."

The research found that about 7% of separations lasted 10 or more years. Among different races and ethnic groups, he says Hispanics and blacks are more likely to be separated than are whites, and once separated, they are more likely to stay separated than divorce. ...

"Splitting? 79% of marital separations end in divorce" By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY, 5/6/12